@SionIV, the compactness of your 4 man party is very attractive. Makes me want to try it. Do you have any thoughts on how you can assemble a party like this in BG1?
I would be tempted also to keep a single class thief and single class cleric to get their skill points and more powerful spells up faster. But at the same time, the rapid growth in experience points might make this thought unnecessary.
This is one of the party i run in BG1 myself.
1.) You should very rarely use single class in a 4 man team, except your mage.
2.) A single class thief isn't very good, but if you're an elf with F/T and 19 dexterity it really shines.
3.) I build my party like this :
Fighter/thief - Quarter staff for backstabbing and it's easy to swich between bow and a two handed weapon. You can get a +3 quarter staff already in Ulgoth's beard.
Mage - Just a normal mage
Ranger/cleric - All of the divine spells in one package, use flails / hammers and a shield. Get the warhammer +2 from the guy next to beregost. (Important!) Get the ring of free action from Ulgoth's.
Cavalier - Immune to poison, fear and charm great for clearing spiders and sirenes for quick experience. Get the spiders bane two handed sword on this one for Free action.
Lately I've been enjoying a game based on a Randomized Recruit Role, where getting a specific NPC into the party is no longer guaranteed. It leads to some fun combinations that I've never experienced before, and is definitely a challenge. Right now the party is fighter, thief, and 3 mages. We are desperately seeking to recruit divine magic caster, so we won't have to lug so many healing potions or rest as much. The mages get very aggressive, so that the party doesn't take many hits.
Although my long term history with the game has leaned toward the "sixpack", I guess I should have chosen "I like bacon" now to reflect my recent desire to experiment.
Right now I'm hog wild with 6 custom characters that I fully intend to murderize bg2 with ... I have charname a wizard slayer wielding two handed sword and will dual class to thief at lvl 13; fully expect to exploit use any item with Carsomyr and have 100% magic resistance in the endgame. It will be glorious!
Wait, i voted for 4?!? lol ... well i'm of the mind that 6 is better now.
The best way to bust a cap is to have a party of 6, have a couple mages cast spells, and continue supporting with slings and bows, meanwhile you have your fighters up frontline hacking enemies down with the sword, and a fight cleric does not go amiss, as then can fight, but as needed, can leave the fight to heal, and then get back to it.... the only disadvantage is that means experience is being shared 6 ways...
I like to have about 4 people including CHARNAME. I feel like 6 people is too many when I'm exploring places that have small corridors. I wish I could bring more, as I love the story of all the characters (except Garrick). I usually try to do exactly what @sionIV said. I try to make my character the tank, and pick up a Cleric or Druid, Mage, and a Fighter/Thief. That way all the rolls are filled.
The only problem is that some of my favorite characters, like Khalid ( I feel bad he dies, okay?), and Yeslick (I HAVE to have Viconia) don't really have a place in the party. Also, Minsc. I'd try to take him, but he can't dual to a thief, and that means I lose a slot that could go to a more versatile character, like Montaron, or Shar-teel (Multi-classed to thief).
I really kind of prefer four member parties just for convenience in combat management, inventory management, spell slot economy, and equipment purchasing economy.
But, in practice, I almost never do that, because I don't want to miss out on party interaction, and actually playing with only four party members makes me feel like I'm losing character development and story.
One Arcane, one Divine, one with Thieving and one oriented towards physical combat. Enough to give banter, story and tactical options. Not so much that you spend your entire time micromanaging and cursing pathfinding. The experience is fast, but not too fast, and there's room for one or two others to tag along where it makes sense for roleplay.
I do highly recommend difficulty enhancing modifications such as SCS. I personally find the game far too easy. A large party, past the first two levels, has so much power it's trivial. A small party levels so fast they make it trivial too. The only exception are some of the late battles, but without improved AI they're trivial regardless.
I think 4 would be the minimum with exception of doing a solo game for whatever challenges it brings, but one fighter (or any warrior class, someone to act as a tank basically), one Theif, one Mage, and one Cleric, but I still prefer 6, it's all the more inventory slots, and all the more attacks per round against your enemy, plus who wouldn't want many traveling companions to keep them company?
If I don't want to play with NPCs, I'll play Icewind Dale. If I do want to play with NPCs, I want to play with as many of them as possible, because NPCs are more entertaining in flocks. Hence, I always and invariably play with a 6-person party.
imo optimal is 3-4 man party f/c - r/c tank melee yeslick/anomen good magic user like edwin /imoen f/t with bows probably coran/montaron/PC 4th would be inquisitor or something like that specialist who helps in this example with fighting mages who are really pain in BG2 and moded versions of BGs /PC/keldorn
I LOVE bacon and eggs and sausages and chicken and lamb and pork and chocolate and chips and gravy and milk and juice and i love whiskey ahhh a wee bottle a Jameson all day --- party of 6 is my answer
@alnair actually convinced me to try becoming a vegan in this thread. (News: I'm not perfect at it yet, but I've already lost ten pounds after about two weeks, and, the food is yummy, and guilt free, and I find my general cheerfulness and sense of well-being and happiness rising. Could veganism be better than Prozac to cure clinical depression? Who knows.)
What I have come to be very sensitive about is the fact that many, many jokes made by meat-eaters come across as horrible, insensitive, offensively emotionally damaging to those who are spiritually aware of the fact that human meat-eaters cause overwhelmingly horrible cruelty to sentient life on planet Earth, and so many other kinds of awful damage to the Universe! Yes, yes, Nature is "red in tooth and claw", but humans are supposed to be trying to transcend all that with their much-ballyhooed "spirituality" and all that.
And, as long as I'm in such an unforgivably mischievous mood, for both derailing and then infinite-looply , illogically, and paradoxically not derailing threads, I think that a FOUR member party is the perfect number of party members for exploring all the possible bisexual and (gasp) homosexual relationships amongst those party members.
Let the head-explosions of all the people who can handle neither veganism, homosexuality, nor bisexuality commence!
And, lest I did not make myself absolutely clear, Four-member parties are best! Or, Six-member parties if you like maximized character interaction! Or, Solo if you're a misanthrope!
Oh, yeah, and Eating bacon is evil! All meat-eating is evil! Everybody should be cool with other people being vegan, or homosexual, or bisexual, because, yeah, you can't do anything about it, anyway, and besides, WE ARE EVERYWHERE!
Bwaaaah, hahahahah.
Um, oh yeah, on topic. I like four-member parties the best, but I usually play six-member parties in practice, because I like maxed-out character interaction. Free love is good, and bacon-eating is bad.
Six Too many RPGs of late limit party size to 4 , and I feel forcing players to stretch their characters or party members into awkward builds. ( Or be forced to take unwanted NPCs ) Especially if you want to cover all bases effectively. Six Pack party allows you easily cover all bases and then some. I like having a fighter that's just a fighter...a thief that's just a thief etc. Plus there is more interaction in a full party. One of the reasons I love the IE games... Party of six. I like to have all my bases covered.
Six offers more dialogue, more personalities, more group dynamics. That's a big incentive for me.
In pen and paper I find that I can manage 3 to 5 players most effectively (for a total of 4 to 6 people when you include the DM). Less than that has problems with encounter balance, and more than that not only has encounter balance problems, but people get distracted and it's hard to keep that many people engaged and focused on the game. A group of 8 players or more just doesn't tend to work at all if you want to tell a story.
6. 4 to cover all basic class types, 2 more to round it out and make your party more customized. It's a common number in rpg's with good reason, plus I like all the extra banter. But I still prefer bacon.
I like four, and not just any four. My perfect party would a single classed Warrior, cleric, thief, and mage. I dig tradition. This is how I run through IWD games, how I'm about to run through ToEE. It may not be the most powerful party, but it gets the job done...every time.
It annoys me that not only is this not the canon party for BG, but it's impossible to even do this kind of party in BG. There are no single-class non-specialized mages in either game, There's only one single-classed cleric in BG2, and she's evil. Finally, the one single-classed thief in BG2 doesn't exactly have a long shelf-life, and he's kitted, to boot!
Comments
1.) You should very rarely use single class in a 4 man team, except your mage.
2.) A single class thief isn't very good, but if you're an elf with F/T and 19 dexterity it really shines.
3.) I build my party like this :
Fighter/thief - Quarter staff for backstabbing and it's easy to swich between bow and a two handed weapon. You can get a +3 quarter staff already in Ulgoth's beard.
Mage - Just a normal mage
Ranger/cleric - All of the divine spells in one package, use flails / hammers and a shield. Get the warhammer +2 from the guy next to beregost. (Important!) Get the ring of free action from Ulgoth's.
Cavalier - Immune to poison, fear and charm great for clearing spiders and sirenes for quick experience. Get the spiders bane two handed sword on this one for Free action.
Although my long term history with the game has leaned toward the "sixpack", I guess I should have chosen "I like bacon" now to reflect my recent desire to experiment.
The 6 person party thing is mostly for the NPC interaction though, at least for BG 2. Otherwise I'd play with 4-5.
I have charname a wizard slayer wielding two handed sword and will dual class to thief at lvl 13; fully expect to exploit use any item with Carsomyr and have 100% magic resistance in the endgame. It will be glorious!
Wait, i voted for 4?!? lol ... well i'm of the mind that 6 is better now.
In a open game like BG, I would fill up all the blanks, unless the system can automatically scale as Wizardry 8 does.
The only problem is that some of my favorite characters, like Khalid ( I feel bad he dies, okay?), and Yeslick (I HAVE to have Viconia) don't really have a place in the party. Also, Minsc. I'd try to take him, but he can't dual to a thief, and that means I lose a slot that could go to a more versatile character, like Montaron, or Shar-teel (Multi-classed to thief).
But, in practice, I almost never do that, because I don't want to miss out on party interaction, and actually playing with only four party members makes me feel like I'm losing character development and story.
One Arcane, one Divine, one with Thieving and one oriented towards physical combat. Enough to give banter, story and tactical options. Not so much that you spend your entire time micromanaging and cursing pathfinding. The experience is fast, but not too fast, and there's room for one or two others to tag along where it makes sense for roleplay.
I do highly recommend difficulty enhancing modifications such as SCS. I personally find the game far too easy. A large party, past the first two levels, has so much power it's trivial. A small party levels so fast they make it trivial too. The only exception are some of the late battles, but without improved AI they're trivial regardless.
imo optimal is 3-4 man party
f/c - r/c tank melee yeslick/anomen
good magic user like edwin /imoen
f/t with bows probably coran/montaron/PC
4th would be inquisitor or something like that specialist who helps in this example with fighting mages who are really pain in BG2 and moded versions of BGs /PC/keldorn
But I would pick 6 size.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19722/to-be-vegan-or-not-to-be-vegan-that-is-the-question-inspired-by-a-poem/p1
@alnair actually convinced me to try becoming a vegan in this thread. (News: I'm not perfect at it yet, but I've already lost ten pounds after about two weeks, and, the food is yummy, and guilt free, and I find my general cheerfulness and sense of well-being and happiness rising. Could veganism be better than Prozac to cure clinical depression? Who knows.)
What I have come to be very sensitive about is the fact that many, many jokes made by meat-eaters come across as horrible, insensitive, offensively emotionally damaging to those who are spiritually aware of the fact that human meat-eaters cause overwhelmingly horrible cruelty to sentient life on planet Earth, and so many other kinds of awful damage to the Universe! Yes, yes, Nature is "red in tooth and claw", but humans are supposed to be trying to transcend all that with their much-ballyhooed "spirituality" and all that.
And, as long as I'm in such an unforgivably mischievous mood, for both derailing and then infinite-looply , illogically, and paradoxically not derailing threads, I think that a FOUR member party is the perfect number of party members for exploring all the possible bisexual and (gasp) homosexual relationships amongst those party members.
Let the head-explosions of all the people who can handle neither veganism, homosexuality, nor bisexuality commence!
And, lest I did not make myself absolutely clear, Four-member parties are best! Or, Six-member parties if you like maximized character interaction! Or, Solo if you're a misanthrope!
Oh, yeah, and Eating bacon is evil! All meat-eating is evil! Everybody should be cool with other people being vegan, or homosexual, or bisexual, because, yeah, you can't do anything about it, anyway, and besides, WE ARE EVERYWHERE!
Bwaaaah, hahahahah.
Um, oh yeah, on topic. I like four-member parties the best, but I usually play six-member parties in practice, because I like maxed-out character interaction. Free love is good, and bacon-eating is bad.
Ummm, yeah.
Too many RPGs of late limit party size to 4 , and I feel forcing players to stretch their characters or party members into awkward builds. ( Or be forced to take unwanted NPCs )
Especially if you want to cover all bases effectively.
Six Pack party allows you easily cover all bases and then some.
I like having a fighter that's just a fighter...a thief that's just a thief etc.
Plus there is more interaction in a full party.
One of the reasons I love the IE games...
Party of six. I like to have all my bases covered.
In pen and paper I find that I can manage 3 to 5 players most effectively (for a total of 4 to 6 people when you include the DM). Less than that has problems with encounter balance, and more than that not only has encounter balance problems, but people get distracted and it's hard to keep that many people engaged and focused on the game. A group of 8 players or more just doesn't tend to work at all if you want to tell a story.
It annoys me that not only is this not the canon party for BG, but it's impossible to even do this kind of party in BG. There are no single-class non-specialized mages in either game, There's only one single-classed cleric in BG2, and she's evil. Finally, the one single-classed thief in BG2 doesn't exactly have a long shelf-life, and he's kitted, to boot!